Secrets of Arcadia Bay
by Elavan-x
Summary: Have you ever thought that demons, werewolves and vampires didn't exist? Well they sure do in Arcadia Bay. Max and her partner in crime Kate are trying to save them from being killed, but that seems to be pretty difficult if you have no one to support you. Maybe they need someone from the inside?
1. Prologue

**Hii dear readers, this is my first life is strange fanfic! I'm so excited to share this with the lis fandom :D I've been reading a lot of lis fanfics and I decided I would make one of my own ^^ This is my second fanfic ever so please be nice, leave a review to tell me what I can do better, maybe something you would want to change, add, .. I'm open to all opinions! This chapter is only a prologue so it's quite short, but I promise I'll make my other chapters longer :) so have fun!**

Remember the times where you were about to go to sleep, your father or mother tucking you in, reading your favorite fairytales about magic, princesses, sparkles and love? Yeah, those aren't real. However, if you believe in stories with vampires, werewolves, monsters and demons, you will be pleased to hear that those do exist.

My family has always been linked to these special creatures, more specifically in the destruction of them. My father is the head of the Supernatural Investigation Department, also known as SID, a group of people who are trying to save humanity by getting rid of these unwanted souls. They track the monsters down and try to make them disappear before anyone even gets a chance of seeing them. As a child, I've always been very interested in these so called monsters, I think they are fascinating, while others would call them creepy and dangerous. Most of them don't want to hurt us, they want us to understand them, to help them solve their problems. I know this because I talked to a werewolf before. He didn't want to attack these people. He had no choice, the moon turning him into this murderous beast is the only reason why he did what he did.

Most people don't think about this, but these creatures are, like I mentioned, people. They are trying to live and survive, just like us, only in a slightly different way. At first I didn't want to become part of the SID, but of course my father wouldn't let that happen and basically forced me to join when I was 16. "It's your job to take over my place when I'm gone Max, I'm counting on you." That's what he would always say, thanks for the emotional torture dad.

So as a good daughter would do, I joined the SID, just to please my father. The first two years were horrible though. My dad wouldn't let me join in on missions, I could only practice my fighting skills and study a lot to become a great leader one day. This started to bore me pretty quickly, so I decided to get myself a hobby: photography. When I turned 17, I asked my parents for money so I could buy myself a polaroid camera, which I did. My camera goes wherever I go, we are like Siamese twins, inseparable. There is just so much in the world that I can capture on camera, such beauty, and destruction. Oh well, a girl's got to do something right?

When I turned 18, my father finally decided I was old enough to join him on missions outside of the headquarters, which was exciting, yet terrifying at the same time. It was also at that age I got my first partner: Kate Marsh. I've known Kate for a while now, since her family is just as connected to the SID as mine is. The Marshes are the catholic side of the organization. They pray for all the departed souls, that they may live in piece on the other side, wherever that is. Kate however wanted to do something more, she wanted to help the creatures instead of killing them, which I completely agree with. We didn't tell anyone about this, because if we did, we'd definitely be thrown out. So I basically begged my father to let Kate be my partner, and luckily for us, he thought it was a great idea. With my expertise and her smarts, we make an unstoppable duo.

So we've been partners in crime for about 2 years now, which is amazing. I hope we can work together on changing this fucked up world and make it a place where everyone can live together in peace. A plan that might never succeed, but you never know unless you try.

My name is Max Caulfield, supernatural investigator/photographer, and together with my best friend Kate, I'm going to change the future, for everyone.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hi, chapter 1 has arrived! I checked this one over and over again for mistakes (English is not my primary language) but it's possible there are still mistakes somewhere :) I hope to dog this is living up to expectations, if not, do tell me in a review! Now that that's of my chest, please enjoy this chapter!**

 **Also I forgot to do this in my prologue so I'll do it now: disclaimer, I do not own Life is strange or any of its characters**

"Beep bee-" the sound stops abruptly as I smack my hand onto my alarm clock. 5 am in the morning is way too early to be awake, especially if you barely had some sleep. There was something that kept me awake, a certain feeling of ignorance. Something is going to happen, but what? And when? I want to stay in bed all day just laying down and think, since it's my day off, but now I'm awake and duty calls, so I get up to do my daily tasks. Right as I was about to take my first bite of cereal, my phone rings, and I know it's business. I check the caller id to see that it's my father. I sigh, put down my spoon and answer the call.

"What's so important that you have to call me at 5:30 am?" I can't help but sound a little annoyed, which my dad immediately noticed.

"Morning to you to Max, had a bad night?" he said.

"I'm sorry dad, morning to you to, and yes, my night consisted of me trying to sleep, fail, try again, fail again, and that for about 6 hours straight. But that doesn't matter, why did you call?" I try to change the subject, because knowing him, he might start to ask questions, which I really don't want to answer right now.

"Ah yes, I'm calling you for a mission meeting, today at 10. I'd like my best team on it, so are you available?" I try to hide a grunt. _So long day off, until we meet again_. As I was about to answer, I got interrupted.

"Oh and there is no point in calling Kate, since I already did that and she agreed." Dad and his evil tricks

"Sure, I'll be there, but there better be some damn good coffee, because I'm going to need it." I can practically hear him smile on the other end of the line.

"Only the best for my daughter, see you soon kid." He says before ending the call. It's this early in the morning and already things are going great, note the sarcasm. This only raises my suspicions of what today has to offer.

I arrive at HQ, greet the guards and enter the conference room. Everyone was already there, Kate, my father and Brooke, his secretary. She's a nice girl, but she has some weird obsession issues. Two weeks ago she found out that Warren, one of our computer geniuses, had asked me out to the movies, which I politely declined (because I don't swing that way, if you know what I mean). Apparently she didn't like that, since she has been bothering me about it every time she can.

"Max! You've arrived, great now we can start." My father exclaims before turning towards a big screen. It showed some pictures of women, dead women to be precise.

"In the last 2 weeks, 3 young girls have been found in the junkyard, all of them being murdered in the same way, by overdosing." I raise my eyebrow _What does overdosing girls have to do with us_?

"I don't want to be impolite sir, but what do these girls have to do with us?" Kate asks, proving we are on the same wavelength here.

"I was expecting that question, but please hear me out first" I look at my partner to see her face becoming slightly red from embarrassment. _She's so cute it almost hurts_. "We believe that the person connected to these cases is not human. Of course we have no proof of it yet, the only clues we have are the syringes found next to the bodies." I see Kate cringe, the poor girl hasn't been on many missions that involved death, and it always got to her somehow. I have no problems with it, I was trained for this kind of situation, while Kate was thrown into it.

"Now the question: why do we think that there are monsters, more specifically demons, involved with this?" the pictures on the screen change, and we can see one body in close-up, and I immediately understand my fathers' suspicion.

"As you can see, all of the bodies have these markings in their necks, the place where they were drugged" The picture showed said markings. Those are definitely demon marks, but the ones on the three girls has a very weird pattern, one I haven't seen yet. Thanks to my studying days, I learned a lot about all different kind of signs, so I'm a little worried about this one.

"Do we know what kind of demon this is? As far as I know this mark is unknown to the SID libraries, or at least the one here in Oregon." I say, and my father looks at me with a worried look. "We don't know exactly what kind of demon it is, so that's why-" He got interrupted as Kate suddenly stood up, knocking over her chair.

"I know this sign! It's HIS sign, oh no this is not good, not good at all." She looks at me, but that look in her eyes was enough to set me on edge. She stumbles towards me and grabs my shoulders. "Max, we have to stop him, we have to! He'll kill us all if we let him continue!" I take her hands into mine in a way to comfort her.

"Kate calm down, tell us everything you know. When you're done we'll go catch it ok? Just calm down." I feel her falling down, knees giving in to the sudden adrenaline loss.

"I can't tell Max, not now. Please just let us go, I'll tell you everything later, but right now I really can't." I look at my father, who is just at surprised at Kate's sudden outburst as me. After a few seconds, he found his voice again.

"Kate, I can't let you leave until you told us everything you know about this demon." Helping Kate up, I answer in her place. "Dad, she's in no condition to tell us anything right now. Let us go investigate the crime-scene for ourselves, we'll contact you as soon as we found something. As soon as she's able to tell us, she will. Please just let us do this." _Let it slide dad, can't you see she's hurting?_ "Maybe you can ask the Marshes? If Kate knows this sign, they might know it as well." My father sighs, before giving me an answer I didn't expect. "Fine, but tell no one about this, I trust you Max. Make sure you find something, otherwise I have to remove you two from this mission." I nod, take Kate's hand and pull her towards my car.

We have been driving for five minutes and neither of us has said a word. Kate is probably too scared to say something and I don't want to force her. A few minutes later we arrive at Arcadia Rust. Right when I'm about to exit the car, I feel a hand on my arm. "Max wait" I turn myself towards her. "I'm sorry, but this is very personal to me, and it's a difficult subject to talk about.. but if you really want more info, you can ask my parents, they will be able to tell you something more about it, I just can't say it". Her eyes start watering, she really has trouble with telling me, or anyone else for that matter, poor Kate. "It's ok Kate, I can see this is bothering you, but you know I will always support you, so tell me when you're ready" I give her a comforting smile, which she seems to accept since she gives me a small smile back.

We exit the car and I look at the scene in front of me: an abandoned junkyard, filled with broken cars, beer bottles laying around a campfire and other kinds of garbage. _I can't see why people would want to party here, it must be freakin' scary in the dark._ In the distance I can see the police banners marking the crime scene. As we are walking towards it, I see the silhouette of a person. It's a man, probably in his late twenties, and looking at his clothes he looks pretty roughed up. He's standing next to the marked spot and I have this gut feeling that he might know something more about the victims, or at least about one of them. I start to approach him, ignoring Kate's silent warning.

"Good morning sir" he turns around, confirming my suspicions. I pull out my SID badge "Max Caulfield, SID. Can I ask you a few questions?" I feel uncomfortable, it feels like his eyes are staring straight through me. "Rather not, can't you see I'm grieving here? I'd like to be left alone." I frown, _sure I can understand you want to grieve over a loved one, but at a crime scene? What a creep._ I try another tactic. "I'm sorry sir, but you aren't allowed to be here, so can I ask you to leave the scene? If you want to grieve, it's better to go someplace that holds memories." He walks towards me slowly, looking very intimidating.

"If I want to be here, who are you to tell me I can't? He growls, showing off his fangs and realization hits me. This guy isn't human. "You SID hipsters don't scare me, I can kill the both of you before you can grab your fancy phones to call for help" I step back. I can hear Kate starting to walk towards me "you stay there if you want to live blondie" the sounds of footsteps stop, I bet Kate is terrified, but I'm too focused on the man in front of me to turn around.

"Please stay calm, we don't want to kill you and I know that you don't want to kill us either. And if you do, you'll have the full department on your ass." I see him struggling, it looks like my words made him think about it. Or maybe not. "You can't tell me what to do bitch, people have tried to do that before and you know what happened to them? The same thing that's going to happen to you!" he launched forward, catching me off guard, I'm too shocked to do anything. I can hear Kate shout my name, but for me time seemed to slow down for a second. _This is it, I'm done for. Sorry dad, it looks like you'll need to look for another successor, because I'm sure as hell not going to make it_. Right when his teeth are about to tear my face off, his breath smelling like pot and alcohol, he is gone. I fall to the ground, what the hell just happened?

"Max! Are you alright? Are you hurt?" I can feel Kate falling on her knees next to me, grabbing my face to check it for injuries. "I'm fine Kate, what happened? Where is that guy?" she doesn't answer me, just lifts her arm and points towards my left, where the guy was standing. His head bleeding, probably from crashing into a wall. In front of him stood a girl, probably the one who saved my life. I took a moment to observe her. She has blue hair, covered by a beanie, a shirt with a skull on, ripped pants and a tattoo sleeve on her right arm. Even though she looks like a punk, something about her made me feel safe, despite the fact that I have no idea who she is.

"Fuck off Frank, leave these people alone!" the mysterious girl yells at the man whose name is apparently Frank. "No you fuck off Price! These people could have prevented Rachel's disappearance by destroying people like you! Monsters who do nothing but killing innocent people for fun!" _Wait, but he's a monster himself, what would he mean by that?_ I stand up and look over at Kate, who is just as confused as I am. "That's bullshit and you know it! Like you've never killed anyone before, heck you kill people by selling drugs and occasionally by losing control, so stop acting like you are the victim here!" this girl obviously knows a lot about him, I might have to ask her to tell everything later.

"Please, stop yelling accusations at each other, we are getting nowhere with this" It's the first time ever I've seen Kate trying to intervene. Frank turned to look at Kate for a few seconds before turning his attention back towards me. "You got lucky kid, but the next time I see you, you won't have your guardian angel to protect you, trust me." Those were his last words before he turned around and starts to make his way out of the junkyard. As soon as he's out of sight, the girl walks towards us.

"Hey, you ok? Sorry about Frank, he tends to lose his calm when people start commanding shit." She says. "Yes I'm fine thanks, you seem to know him pretty well" I ask her and she grins "yeah, we go way back. Tell me, what are you two fine ladies doing in a junkyard?" _wowzers, she's really pretty standing this close, I hope I'm not as red as a tomato right now, that would be so embarrassing._

"We are special investigators for the SID, you've probably heard about it before." The smile on her face is quickly replaced by a concerned look. "Figures, what are you doing here? It's not like there is something left for you to find." She looks upset, so I'm searching for the right words, but my brain feels like there's a storm raging through all my thoughts. "We have our reasons to be here. To be honest we have no clue what we're looking for, but maybe you can help us? I have a couple of questions that I would like to ask you" she sighs before answering.

"Sure, I can't assure you that I can answer all your questions, but I'll try my best. The name's Chloe by the way." She holds out her hand and I shake it. "My name is Max, this is my partner Kate, thank you for your cooperation." Suddenly she starts laughing.

"Dude, don't be so formal, that's hella uncool. So how about going to the Two Wales? It's a diner not too far from here, my mom works there so I can get free food, sounds good right _?" I don't think it's a good idea to talk in a public place, but I think that's our only chance of talking to her_.

"Yeah, sounds perfect. You can join us if you want, I'll drop you off wherever you need to be afterwards." Suddenly, her arm is around my shoulders, pulling me closer. _Ok now I know that I'm blushing like crazy_. "I'll never say no to a free ride, let's go!" she pulls me into the direction of my car. I'm sure Kate has this giant grin on her face. She's the only one who knows about my liking for girls, so she probably saw my face turning red. We all get in the car, me in the driver's seat, Kate next to me and Chloe in the back. I'm curious about what info she can give us about Frank or maybe about the murders, but I'm even more interested in her story. I guess we'll find out soon enough.


	3. Chapter 2

**I'm back with chapter 2! Sorry it takes so long for me to update, but with school and the pressure of writing a fanfic that everyone likes (+ I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to fanfics :p) it takes a while to get a chapter done. It's not as long as the previous chapter but I hope you'll like it anyways :) Also if you happen to see some spelling mistakes, do not hesitate to tell me. Disclaimer I do not own Life is strange or any of its characters.**

 **Enjoy!**

Ten minutes later we arrive at the Two Wales diner. We exit the car and Chloe leads us towards the entrance. _I hope she can give us enough info so we can start our investigation properly._ The diner is fairly empty, a few people enjoying a cup of coffee and eating some breakfast before heading off to work. We walk to the far back and take a seat in front of the window. A woman who I assume is the waitress makes her way towards our table, this woman must be Chloe's mother.

"Good morning Chloe, I see you brought a couple of friends? My name is Joyce, Chloe's mother, but I think you already knew that" The lady says to us. "Sup mom, and yeah, these are my .. friends, the brunette is Max and the blonde is Kate, can we get something to nosh here?" Wow, _I'm pretty sure if I would talk to my mother like that, I'd get an earful, but this woman looks pretty chill, so she'll probably won't make a scene out of it._ "Of course you can, this is a diner after all, but this time you'll have to pay for your own food, you've already got your whole college fund on your tab." Chloe rolls her eyes and asks what we would like to eat. I decide to get a Belgian waffle while Kate and Chloe take bacon and eggs. As soon as Joyce left, Chloe turns towards me. "Ok, now that she's gone, what do you want to know?" _I have so many questions, where do I start?_

"Euh, let's just start by telling us who you are?" _Nice one Max, start with the most cliché question ever_ "Alright, my name is Chloe Price, I'm 21 years old, I live here in Arcadia bay together with my mom and stepdouche, I got expelled from Blackhell Academy about 2 years ago and I like to get high sometimes.. is that enough to satisfy your hungry need towards my personal information?" she says, sounding bored.

"Yes, how do you know this Frank guy? What is your connection with him?" her face changed from careless to sadness. It is clear that something happened between those two, and whatever it was, it probably wasn't very pretty.

"…it's a long story, and I don't know if I should tell you, heck I don't even know who you are, except for your names. Why the fuck should I tell you my whole life? And trust me, you don't want to hear it cuz it's full of shit." Kate cringes at Chloe's cussing, she's way too innocent for that kind of language.

"Because we are trying to solve those mysterious deaths, and I have a feeling that you know more about them. I'm not accusing you or anything, but do you perhaps know one of the victims?" I ask carefully. I must have hit a weak spot, because now her eyes are starting to water from both sadness and anger.

"I have nothing to do with these deaths, but yeah, I knew one of the victims, her name is- ..was Rachel Amber. I'd rather not talk about her though. As you can probably see, I'm not quite over it yet" I feel sympathy for her, and I know Kate feels the same because I see her reaching out for the punk's arm to show some support. For a second I thought Chloe would smack her hand away, but surprisingly, she accepted the comfort.

"We understand, how about we talk about how she was before she passed away? Sometimes it is better to talk about the good sides of a person when you're trying to move on" Kate says. _Pure, sweet Kate._

"You look like you know what you're talking about, since you're hella catholic looking. I'll talk after my mom gives us our food in a few seconds" And indeed, as soon as those words left her lips, Joyce came from behind the counter with our food. _How did she know that? There is no way she could see her mom coming, except when she has eyes in the back of her head.. Ok Max, that's ridiculous, she's not a monster… is she?_

"Max, food has arrived" I snap out of my thoughts when I hear Kate calling my name. "You spaced out for a second, are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm ok, Sorry I was just thinking about something" I give her a reassuring smile. "Ok Max, if you say so" she says before starting to eat. I look at my plate. _Holy crap, this looks soo good, time to dig in!_

We were eating in an uncomfortable silence and I could basically feel Chloe staring at me. I look up "What's wrong, something on my face?" I say a bit annoyed.

"As a matter of fact there is, you have some sugar on your nose" she answers, now laughing at me. I rub my nose and indeed, there was a bit of sugar on it. _God how many times am I going to embarrass myself today?_

"How about we continue our conversation now? Chloe, tell us how you knew Rachel" The laughter died down and the serious air floated towards us again.

"Oh, yeah I almost forgot that I'm getting interviewed. Rachel.. Rachel was my best friend. She saved me from.. hurting myself when my father died. She was my Angel" she says. _I feel sorry for her, I know what it's like to lose a loved one, I refused to talk for 3 days straight when my grandfather died, I can't imagine what's going through your mind when your best friend dies._

"She was the only one I could trust my secrets to. I didn't talk to my mom much and I definitely didn't talk to my step-prick. We did everything together. Our first day at high school, our first boyfriend, our first girlfriend, our first joint.. everything." She stops talking, but I'm too focused to tell her to continue, and also did she say girlfriend? _Stop it Max, just hear her out first._ After a few seconds she goes on.

"Until one day, something…happened, that caused our first fight. We've never fought before, but this one fight was enough to break up all our years of friendship, I haven't heard from her since. Well, until I found out she was dead of course" she chuckles sarcastically "It's kind of hard to apologize to someone who's 6 feet underground" she finishes her story and leans back into her seat.

 _This is useless, she's not going to tell us anything of use. Maybe I can get something out of her if I can talk to her alone.. But I can't tell Kate to go away, Chloe will know that something is wrong._ Suddenly I have an idea.

"I'm sorry to hear all of this Chloe, I think we've heard enough right Kate?" Kate gives me a weird look, but then quickly catches on. She knows I have an idea, we have been partners for long enough to be able to read each other's expressions. "Oh yes, I think this is sufficient" Kate stands up. "I'm very sorry, but I have an appointment that I really need to get to. I'm pleased to have met you and thank you very much for the food Chloe. I'll see you later in the office Max, goodbye" She makes her way out of the diner, waving to Joyce as she went.

"How can one be so politically correct, yet be the cutest thing I've ever seen? She should learn to be a little wild though, I mean the girl could use a beer once in a while" Chloe says, I laugh at the image of Kate being drunk. _That's never gonna happen, but it would be a funny sight though._

"That is never going to happen, she's way too innocent to drink alcohol" I reply. "True, I feel bad just being near her, it's like I'm being a bad influence on her without even doing anything" This is the moment that my plan is going to be put in motion.

"So, now that we're done here, do I have to drop you off somewhere, or will you stay here with your mother?" I ask her. "Yeah, can you drop me off at the junkyard? My car is still there and I need it for ..business stuff, you know, can't go anywhere without it" a big grin appears on her face. "Sure no problem" I tell her as I'm standing up. She stands up as well and grabs my arm again "Mom me and Max are leaving, thanks for the food, see you later!" Chloe yells to her mom as she drags me outside.

"Come on Max! Before she notices that I didn't pay!" We jogged towards my car, and as soon as I open it, Chloe dives into the driver's seat. "Wow, you can drive a car without the keys? That's impressive, I didn't know you could do magic" I say mockingly. She laughs and answers with a goofy grin on her face "Aha, life is full of surprises isn't it? But really, I want to drive you there, since you drove here. Plus you have a sick ride dude" she exclaims, and with a swift motion of her arm, my keys were in the ignition. "Fine, but be careful, this car is like, my baby, so no scratches or else" I smile as I get in the passenger seat.

"Or else what? And don't worry I know how to drive a car.. I do have a problem accepting the speeding limits though" I gulp. "What do you mean by that?" I ask as I fasten my seatbelt. "Oh you'll see" is her answer before we speed off.


End file.
